So, back to the personality that Lucy is developing! My favorite thing that Lucy learned this month is how to give hugs. She will put her hands on each side of our face and squeeze them together while pressing her face as hard as she can into ours. This is usually with her mouth open, so it is a very sloppy and wet hug but we love it! She also has become quite good at reaching for the parent she wants - usually it turns into a game, and she'll reach back and forth for Will and I until she's distracted by something else. Lucy has figured out that strangers like smiling at her, so now she will smile excitedly first when she sees a stranger in the store or at church. It breaks my heart though when some strangers either don't realize Lucy is smiling at them, or they just plain don't smile back. It makes me wonder if all humans are born with a heart so open they smile whenever they see another person and if over time, once the smile isn't returned enough times, their heart eventually loses that spark of joy as well. So sad! If only we all kept that joy into adulthood.
Lucy still has a special smile reserved just for her daddy. She loves to watch for him to come home from work. When Will is about five minutes away, we go to the couch next to the front window, and peak over the edge while we watch for Will to come home. When Will pulls in the driveway, Lucy starts smiling. Once Will gets out of the car - Lucy starts pumping her legs up and down, her little heart starts beating a mile a minute, and she starts panting in excitement. It is the cutest thing. Then her daddy walks through the door and she can hardly contain herself. Unfortunately Will can't scoop her right up because he has to wash all the germs off from school first. But then! Oh, it is priceless to watch her hug her daddy hello!
Lucy has also accomplished many things physically this past month. At the beginning of the month her left bottom front tooth popped through, and two days ago the right bottom front tooth also made it's debut. She is also sitting on her own better, and gets the biggest kick out of sitting in 'grown up' chairs by herself. Here she is in a rocking chair, smiling for the camera.
The picture below shows Lucy sitting in our new Amish-made chairs that were finally delivered from our vacation to Shipshewana this past summer.
Lucy loves to bang the keys on the piano - here she is making some beautiful noise.
Lucy has discovered tags, zippers and strings this past month. Forget the toy - she wants the tag attached to it! Here she is below playing with the tag on her doll Brenda.
Lucy started eating table food this month. Her 'gateway' food was rice cereal, and then avocado, sweet potato and bananas. Her favorite so far is definitely avocado.
Lucy tried sweet potatoes for the first time on Thanksgiving. It was great to have her at the table with us. Will and I alternated between feeding her so that we could pace ourselves with the turkey and stuffing.
Lucy is still having difficulties sleeping. We are now seeing a new doctor who we really like, and she seems to think that Lucy may have acid reflux. She referred us to a gastrologist this coming month to see if we can find a way to help our little Lucy sleep better. If you could keep us in your prayers so that we find the cause of Lucy's sleeplessness, we would really appreciate it!We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Here Will is trying to take a nap, but Lucy clearly has other plans.
When we weren't busy trying to get Lucy to take a nap, we were picking the plethora of tomatoes from our garden. Here's Lucy holding on to some of the harvest. It's a little ironic to me because a year ago at this time I was pregnant with her, and tomatoes made me want to gag!
We were excited when Lucy hit the four month mark, because it meant she could finally play in her little activity center we have for her. Her feet were a little shy from touching the ground, but we found something to put under them so that she could fit. She has a love hate relationship with the little purple hippo she is holding in her right hand. Nothing excites her more than to get that into her mouth, and nothing frustrates her more than not being able to.
Lucy loves to play on the floor. She surprised us both a couple of weeks ago when she rolled over as we were trying to put her pajamas on. Will and I think she was trying to escape bedtime. We were happy we both were there to catch this major milestone. She also has discovered her feet and likes to play with them while we change her diaper.
Yesterday we went on our annual apple picking trip with the 
Here we are on the shore of Lake Huron where we rented a house with my family to celebrate my parents 30th wedding anniversary. We were supposed to be there an entire week, but to make a long story short, we ended up heading home after only two nights because the septic field backed up! Everyone kept their humor about them, and it was definitely a bonding experience. Looking back now, it was pretty funny, but while in the thick of it with sewage coming up out of the toilets and shower drains and flooding the bathrooms it was pretty stinky and messy. In the picture above we are sitting by a fire we built on the beach our last night there. Lucy loved the sound of the waves, and slept really well while we were there. To make up for our shortened vacation, we headed to Shipshewana, Indiana where we toured an Amish settlement, ate extremely rich and delicious food and baked goods and bought six dining room table chairs that are currently being built by an Amish guy named Casper. I'll have to remember to post a picture of them when they arrive, as they are absolutely beautiful.
Lucy is many things and especially cute, but she is definitely NOT a sleeper. Here she is in her swing, fighting a much needed nap. We find she sleeps great in the car, but other than that will only take 15 minute cat naps throughout the day. This makes it seem like we are trying to settle a fussy and sleepy baby for most of the day. She can't stand to miss a thing, and if there is anything new or remotely interesting going on she will refuse to sleep. She is getting better about sleeping at night, but of course last night proved us wrong when she decided that she preferred to be wide awake from 1:30 a.m. until somewhere around 4:00 a.m. We are assuming she finally did fall asleep - all we know is that the last time either of us looked at the clock it read 3:58 a.m. She woke me up somewhere after that about 6:30 a.m. It's amazing to me that she seems to require less sleep than her parents. We should have known she didn't need much sleep when she was wide awake the first few days of her life. We kept looking on with pride - "Look how alert she is!" As if to say, wow, we must have something special here. Every other newborn we've seen sleeps the day away! Little did we know how in for it we were! But seriously, we wouldn't have her any other way.
Lucy still loves her bath and insists that we run the water while she is in the tub. We've tried turning off the water in an effort to conserve it once her tub is filled up, but she starts crying as soon as the water turns off. Being the push overs we are for our Little Lucy, we let it run and brace ourselves for the next water bill. Lately, her favorite part of bathtime is getting dried off. She smiles and smiles in her little duck towel and even enjoys it when I swab out her ears with a q-tip. She is a creature of habit already - she knows when it is bath night (every other night) and if we forget - look out! She will cry and cry until we remember. And if we don't bathe her in the exact same pattern as every other time, she will also protest. Again, we think it is adorable - hopefully this isn't a precursor to OCD or something like that!
I think this above picture speaks volumes. Currently her favorite book to chew on - I mean read - is "The Belly Button Book."
Lucy smiling!
Lucy doing 'tummy time'.
Lucy and Grandpa.
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